Lesson 6 reflection

 This week's lesson was on advocacy. One of our students was absent. For this lesson we went over our expectations and started with our ice breaker which was who is one person from history you would want to have dinner with. The students said their great grandparents, themselves, and George Washington. We started by having the students watch a story that was a video about a child and their doll. The story was about how the child and some adults in the story had to stand up for themselves. Then the students completed a cause and effect chart about the story. After this the students created inventions to help the community or the environment. The students drew machines that helped with transportation and getting food and water to people in need. Then we had the students create a hashtag for their invention. To close out since this was the last lesson with our students we had them decorate the pinch pots they made the lesson before. 

I learned that students have big imaginations. At such a young age they want to help people and have big ideas that they think can be put into the world. When the students created there inventions they wanted to provide food and water to people in need. They put these inventions out in parks so everyone could have access to them. 

Lesson 5 Reflection

 

    This lesson we taught was about culture. We talked about their own cultures as well as the culture of the Native people of Vermont. To start we went over the expectations and agenda. I took the time to really remind the students of the expectations because of the interruption problems we've been having the last few lessons. I not only went over them but asked how we can show how we follow each of these expectations. Then for this ice break we asked if the students could talk about their culture at home. The students seemed a little confused so we asked if they ate food that was different then their friends or peers or if they celebrated any holidays that were different. Maybe if they spoke different languages at home. The students didn’t know about their cultures and said they celebrate the traditional holidays in the U.S. Like Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Memorial Day. 

    Then we did a Pictionary vocabulary lesson. To modify the game I used hints to help them guess the vocabulary word. It was definitely not too hard but not too easy for the students and they enjoyed drawing. After the pictionary game we listened to a book about the tribe and did the anchor chart to start to talk about the Natives people of Vermont called the Abenaki Tribe. We made a venn diagram to compare mainstream American culture to the Abenaki Tribe where students stuck pictures to the chart. The students did a great job sticking photos to the chart in the correct places. 

    Next we made pinch pots like the Native Tribe would to make their dishes out of clay. We used air dry clay. I made a pot alongside them so we can model and stay on track with time. We also had one student absent so this can be used as hers when we decorate them at the last lesson to close out. The students enjoyed making the pots and they now have to dry. After this for our last activity we learned about many cultures. They watched a 5 minute video about cultures around the world that was turned into a song. Then we did a sort where they matched countries, languages, and pictures of festivals or common foods and dresses or holidays. 

    This week I learned how to better handle the students with their behavior. This week I went over the expectations very thoroughly to remind them of how we can show the expectations. I also showed them the air-dry clay and explained that to get through the activity and have time to play with the clay we needed to use our expectations and have minimal interruptions during this lesson.  

Lesson 4 Reflection

 This weeks lesson was on economics. The did a T-chart and a drawing connections activity. First we went over the agenda and expectations like every week. Then we did the ice breaker. We asked what superpower the students would want for a day. Next we talked about resources. We did a small matching activity with pictures of objects that the students had to match to each kind of recourse. Then we talked about services and goods. After this we gave the students the t-chart. They were expected to fill in goods and services on each side of the chart. The students had a hard time thinking of goods so we gave hints to look around the class, think about what they buy at stores, what they brought to school in there backpacks. For services the students were answering with jobs so when we shared the columns we had them explain what services went with each job that they wrote. We then switched the discussion over to tracing with other countries and how we make money through buying goods from other places. The students then drew pictures of economics with other countries. Some made up there own imaginary places and some used real countries. They drew pictures of people buying food from other countries. Borrowing money from other countries. Even crossing over the border with shopping bags. 

This week I learned that this group of students is very artistic. Instead of doing anything with writing I will try to plan things that involve more hands-on crafts. I have been having a harder time with my group with staying on tasks and not interrupting. Some students in the group have a tendency to talk to each other so I may try to move seats around.